SpaceMail Pal is a postcard subscription for kids ages 4-11 featuring fun facts about space. The cards are written by a PBS Kids scriptwriter and designed to be educational, collectible, and conversational.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
This is a review of the $8.99/month plan, which includes 4 postcards per month. Normally these postcards would be sent out weekly to your child, but we're reviewing them all at once.
What is SpaceMail Pal?
The Subscription Box: SpaceMail Pal
The Cost: You can choose to receive 1, 2, or 4 postcards each month. Pricing starts at $2.99/month for one postcard, $5.49/month for two postcards, and $8.99/month for four postcards.
The Products: Postcards for kids featuring fun facts about space
Ships to: U.S. only
Spacemail Pal December 2017 Review
This is our sixth month reviewing SpaceMail Pal. These postcards are all about various outer space objects as you might expect. They really run the gamut from familiar topics like our Sun and neighboring planets, to really interesting objects that you might not know of unless you're a frequent stargazer.
SpaceMail Pal sends 1 postcard at a time; you can select to have 1, 2, or 4 postcards delivered each month. The postcards are sent through the mail just like a regular postcard, so there will be postal artifacts on them, including those cool space exploration stamps!
Each card has a photo or illustration of a topic on the front, and then a letter from Astronaut Neil and Robot Sally on the back.
The first card this month is about the Kuiper Belt! I've never heard of this formation before.
Apparently, the Kuiper Belt is an asteroid belt that's farther out in our solar system near Neptune. It's the source of many comets and just might contain clues about the formation of our solar system.
The next postcard is about Chiron, which is a Centaur.
Wait, what?
Today I learned that in astronomy-speak, a Centaur is a body that orbits the sun between the Asteroid and Kuiper Belts... so not a half-human, half-horse hybrid. Instead, they're half "minor planet" and half comet. Cool!
Next up is the Andromeda Galaxy. This one I've actually heard of before!
Andromeda is our nearest galactic neighbor. On this card, we learned that while most objects are moving away from the Milky Way, Andromeda is actually moving toward it.
Finally, we have Mercury!
I was convinced at first that this was a photo of Earth's Moon, but it turns out that Mercury actually looks very similar.
This card covers some basic talks about orbit, relative size, seasons and days.
Verdict: My thoughts about this box are pretty much the same every month: SpaceMail Pal is an affordable educational subscription for kids who are interested in science and exploration. I'd personally have really enjoyed this as a kid.
Parents should note that while this subscription is super affordable, it does not include any discussion guide or additional material, and there's not a consistent "theme" month to month... you'll be jumping around to a lot of different parts of the universe, and you'll probably need to look a few things up on your own if your kid is the type to ask a lot of questions! It might be a good way to start to teach them how to do some basic research on their own.
Check out all of our SpaceMail Pal reviews and more STEM and Educational Subscription Boxes for Kids in our box directory!
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What do you think of SpaceMail Pal? Do you have any aspiring astronauts in your life who would enjoy this subscription?
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